John Linton
We got back to Australia yesterday evening and had time since then to catch up on the Australian business press I had missed for the last week. I don't know what anyone else makes of the various reports and statements from Stupid Stephen and his running dog mates at Telstra and the plaintive retorts by Optus and some of the small internet providers but all I can say, to paraphrase one of the long list of disastrous Labor prime ministers, is - 'Heaven help Australia because the Federal Government certainly won't".
After 17 years of attempting to make telecommunications deregulation work in Australia Crazy Kevin, at one stroke of a pen, has used an insane and completely unscoped and unthought out and just plain stupid electoral promise 'sound bite' to totally f*** Australia.
He is paying Telstra back big time for their support of Labor in the last election and who cares if Australia's internet and telephone users have to pay double or treble for basic data services because of his craziness and deluded stupidity?
Only every Australian who wants to use the internet and related services to help them run a small business or help their children study or just entertain themselves at a reasonable cost.
What other 'tender' (and what a joke that word is in this context) anywhere in the world for any major project would have a three month 'deadline' for the submission of bids?
Obviously the answer is absolutely NONE.
So what is the ONLY conclusion that ANYONE can come to when a Federal Government makes an insane electoral commitment and then 'delivers' on that commitment by issuing tender that only one organisation can respond to in the time frame?
I can think of two words - one is graft the other is corruption (or are they just synonyms?). Actually I don't think either word is correct - I think the only words that are applicable are "inexperienced delusion" or if you just want to use one word it's hard to go past "crazy".
.......and these are the people 'running the country'.
I see the 'opposition' wil use whatever leverage it has in the Senate to block the deal - I assume that's possible over time - and all that means is that nothing will be done for even longer which suits Telstra even better.
At some stage the full ramifications of what they are doing will eventually dawn on the dummies who are attempting to put the deregulation clock back 17 years in the 'cause' of 'popular politics' but that will only happen:
a) When as much damage as possible has been done
b) After even the morons in the Labor Party caucus actually understand what Crazy Kevin's quick fix to his election sound bite actually means.
c) They work out a way of getting out of their self inflicted mess that allows them to appear to have "listened to what Australians are saying".
I couldn't find anything else of interest that had happened in communications in Australia over the week I was away except the brief look I had at the share prices of those ISPs and comms companies that are listed on the ASX. Telstra and Singtel seem to be holding up well but the small and tiny ISPs all seem headed for their 12 month lows and some of them seem hardly worth keeping listed their share prices are so low and each have the majority of their shares held by a very few people. I guess another sign that current shareholders have little confidence that the future is anything but doubtful and almost certainly factor in the current political/Telstra machinations.
Oh well - as voter in a 'safe' electorate I can do nothing about the wide sweep of Australian politics and the results of those politics so all that can be done is to get on with what is possible and attempt to stay alive in an increasingly distorted market place.
It's a new week tomorrow and undoubtedly new perspectives will be available.